By Andrew Irumba
The casket carrying the remains of UPDF soldier Lt. Colonel Opio Patrick Awany, who died while serving under the African Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), arrived at Entebbe Military Airbase last evening.
His remains were received by senior UPDF officers, friends, and close relatives.
The fallen Lt. Col. Awany, who was posthumously promoted from the rank of Major, is a brother to NRM Secretary General Rt. Hon. Richard Todwong and UPDF Reserve Force Commander Lt. Gen. Charles Otema Awany.
Awany was killed by the explosion in the village of Ceel-Werigow, around 70km southwest of the capital Mogadishu.
Not The First
Museveni in June last year announced the deaths of 54 Ugandan soldiers in an al-Shabab attack on a base housing African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.
Museveni’s statement came a week after al-Shabab fighters stormed the base in Bulamarer, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of the Somali capital, Mogadishu and claimed it killed 137 soldiers.
Also, in October 2017, twin truck bombings in Mogadishu widely believed to be perpetrated by al-Shabaab killed more than 500 people; five years later, over 100 more were killed at the same location.
Al-Shabab has been fighting since 2006 to replace Somalia’s Western-backed government with its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In 2022, an intensive government offensive began after the election victory of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and has made significant gains in eroding the group’s control of vast swathes of Somali land.
But al-Shabab is still capable of launching significant attacks on government, commercial and military targets.
It also intermittently launches attacks in neighbouring Kenya as part of reprisals for Nairobi sending troops to support Mogadishu’s rebel pushback.
